A 61-year-old busi­ness­woman was beat­en and robbed dur­ing an ear­ly morn­ing hold-up at her mi­ni mart in Pe­nal yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said the pro­pri­etor of Ear­ly Bird Mi­ni Mart along Pe­nal Rock Road was at her busi­ness place con­duct­ing sales around 5.15 am when three men en­tered the premis­es.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said one of the sus­pects, armed with what ap­peared to be a firearm, point­ed the weapon at the woman, an­nounced a rob­bery, and de­mand­ed cash and valu­ables.

Dur­ing the or­deal, the vic­tim was beat­en about her body while the two oth­er sus­pects ran­sacked the busi­ness place.

The ban­dits es­caped with two bot­tles of Hen­nessy brandy val­ued at $1,000, five gal­lons of Pun­cheon rum val­ued at $2,500, four bot­tles of White Oak rum val­ued at $800, and $200 in cash. Po­lice es­ti­mat­ed the to­tal val­ue of items stolen at $4,500.

Po­lice said the sus­pects fled the scene in a white Nis­san AD Wag­on, bear­ing reg­is­tra­tion num­ber PBT 8534, which was be­ing dri­ven by a fourth ac­com­plice. The ve­hi­cle was last seen head­ing west along Pe­nal Rock Road.

The first sus­pect was de­scribed as an Afro-Trinida­di­an man, about 5 feet 9 inch­es tall, medi­um-built and dark brown in com­plex­ion. He was masked and dressed in a blue long-sleeved sweater and black jeans.

The sec­ond sus­pect was de­scribed as an Afro-Trinida­di­an man, al­so about 5 feet 9 inch­es tall, slim-built and dark brown in com­plex­ion. He was masked and dressed in a black long-sleeved sweater and black three-quar­ter jeans.

The third sus­pect was de­scribed as a man of mixed de­scent, about 5 feet 6 inch­es tall, medi­um-built and fair in com­plex­ion. He was dressed in a pink and blue short-sleeved T-shirt and kha­ki three-quar­ter jeans.

Po­lice Con­sta­bles Esa­hack and Hug­gins re­spond­ed to the re­port and in­ter­viewed the vic­tim and sev­er­al oth­er per­sons in the area. Of­fi­cers said use­ful in­for­ma­tion was ob­tained.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors al­so re­viewed CCTV footage from the busi­ness and sur­round­ing ar­eas, while crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors from the South­ern Di­vi­sion processed the scene. How­ev­er, checks for the sus­pects have so far proven un­suc­cess­ful.